By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Jon Gruden may not coach in the NFL ever again. But the former head coach is taking a swing at the league as he departs.
Gruden, who resigned as the Las Vegas Raiders head coach in September, has sued the league. The lawsuit also includes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Super Bowl-winning coach alleges in the lawsuit that the league put together a “malicious and orchestrated campaign to destroy his career and reputation.”
READ MORE: Click here for our latest NFL Coverage.
The NFL reportedly knew about the Gruden emails for months and did nothing about them. Then, it appears leaked them to the New York Times to force the Raiders to fire Gruden.
Mark Davis, who owns the team, elected to do nothing. Then, Gruden met with the team and told them that he was stepping down.
The league got their hands on the private emails when they investigated the Washington Football Team’s misconduct. Gruden, who was out of the league at the time and employed by ESPN, sent them to his friend and former co-worker Bruce Allen, who was leading the then-Washington Redskins team.
As Gruden notes in the lawsuit, the league has thousands of emails in their investigation of the WFT. However, they have only released part of his emails. At this time, no other emails have been leaked out from the probe.
The first email leak included disparaging remarks to NFLPA Executive Director DeMarcus Smith. Then after the Raiders refused to fire him, more emails were leaked out by the league.
The 58-year-old is suing for unknown damages. He is 117-112 as an NFL head coach with the Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While in Tampa Bay, he guided the team to their first Super Bowl win during the 2002 season.
